TL2024 from .iso fail under cygwin (win11 pro)

[John Collins]

On 4/29/24 4:29 PM, Ken Brown wrote:
> On 4/29/2024 6:56 AM, Reinhard Kotucha via tex-live wrote:
>> If there are differences between Cygwin and other systems I prefer to
>> look for software solutions first before bothering users.
>>
>> It's not a problem if the documentation recommends to install wget on
>> Cygwin before installing TeX Live.  But most people read the docs only
>> if something fails.
>>
>> Thus I think that most problems discussed here can be avoided if the
>> installer sets PATH as described above when being invoked under
>> Cygwin.  The error message can tell users how to proceed (install
>> wget) and once wget is installed other programs like tlmgr will use
>> it, even if PATH contains the Windows directories.
> 
> I might agree with you if wget were the only issue.  But the documentation 
> we're talking about also mentions 4 recommended packages in addition to the 
> required packages.  For example, a user who wants to use XeTeX should install 
> fontconfig, a user who wants to use xdvi should install libXaw7, and so on.  So 
> this is a case where I really think users should read the documentation before 
> doing the install.

Nevertheless, I think the installer is a special case, if only because it is 
the first stop before one has a usable TL installation. The original motivation 
for the thread was that the error message from the installer was very 
misleading as to the underlying cause of the problem. Once a user's attention 
is drawn to checking the Cygwin prerequisites, the user's view changes.

I think I agree with Reinhard that since the installer needs actual cygwin 
binaries for wget and/or curl (and I think others), it would be useful for it 
to restrict PATH to the relevant directories. (And a warning message to the 
console would be useful.)

John